Scaling Rennet Coagulated Cheese Making Recipes - Aging Time?

[Spoons]

I'm new to cheese making and absolutely love this new hobbie 

Here's my question : I'm following a recipe that yields 3-3.5 lbs. The recipe recommends a 7" tomme style press with a minimum aging of 3 months. What if I decide to split the curds in three 450g (1lbs) presses to make three smaller wheels instead. Does that change the aging process?

Another way to ask this question : if you split your batch in two -one ending up as a 2lbs wheel, and the other ending up as a 1lbs wheel- do they age at the same rate or is volume not relevant?

BTW, I've been reading this forum the past few weeks and I really enjoy all of your contribution.  Good job people!

[Sailor Con Queso]

Volume is very relevant. Really small wheels do not age well. You are better off sticking with one cheese instead of making pancakes.

[Spoons]

LOL gotcha  But what would you consider a pancake? is a 1lbs wheel ok?

[9mmruger]

I would think that a 1 lb wheel in a 7" mold would be a pancake, where as a 1lb wheel in a 4" mold would produce a thicker wheel and thereby age better.  I could be wrong, as I am fairly new at this as well.

[Alex]

About 1-1/2 gall will yield about 1 lb of semi hard cheese and will fit into a 4" hoop making a mini Gouda size.

[Spoons]

I get what you're saying now: a 200gr wheel can still age well if pressed in a 200gr Kadova gouda mold for instance. So it's a really small wheel, but would still age well right?

[Alex]

A 200 gr Gouda is about the size of a Camembert and it'll be mostly rind if you age it unwaxed.

[DeejayDebi]

As Alex implied ... small cheese have a lot of loss due to rind. By the time the cheese ages with a natural rind there is no cheese left it become all rind. Small cheese should be waxed or vacuum sealed.